Water flooding remains a critical challenge that hinders the operation of fuel cells at high current and power densities. Here, we develop a novel gas diffusion layer (GDL) featuring quadrilaterally patterned perforations to boost the water drainage capability in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. When the perforations are vertically arranged to flow channels, the fuel cell can achieve a peak power density of 1.43 W cm^–2 and a current density of as high as 5400 mA cm^–2, far outperforming those with commercial GDLs with and without a microporous layer by 28.6% and 58.8%, respectively. Pore-scale simulations reveal that the patterned perforations reduce the breakthrough pressure and facilitate water removal, thus improving oxygen diffusion in the perforated GDLs, while cell-scale simulations show that the vertically arranged perforations to flow channels significantly enhance water removal to the adjacent channels due to the improved in-plane permeability, thereby reducing liquid water saturation and boosting cell performance.

中文翻译：

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四边形图案的穿孔气体扩散层可提高燃料电池的性能

水驱仍然是阻碍燃料电池在高电流和功率密度下运行的关键挑战。在这里，我们开发了一种新型气体扩散层（GDL），具有四边形图案的穿孔，以提高质子交换膜燃料电池的排水能力。当穿孔与流道垂直排列时，燃料电池可实现1.43 W cm ^–2的峰值功率密度和高达5400 mA cm ^–2的电流密度，远远优于带有或不带有微孔的商业GDL。层分别增加了28.6%和58.8%。孔隙尺度模拟表明，图案化的穿孔降低了突破压力并促进水的去除，从而改善了穿孔 GDL 中的氧气扩散，而细胞尺度的模拟表明，垂直排列的流道穿孔显着增强了对相邻通道的水去除，因为提高面内渗透性，从而降低液态水饱和度并提高电池性能。